1995 05 20 Melody Maker Electronic

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION

BERNARD SUMNER has been speaking to The Maker about the new Electronic album, his use of Prozac to cure a supposed case of ”writer's block”, the future of New Order and ”Touching From A
Distance” - the new book by the late Ian Curtis’ wife, Deborah.

Bernard contacted The Maker from the studio in Manchester where he’s recording the new Electronic album with Johnny Marr and former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos.

Sumner and Marr have been recording for the last 15 months and have 14 tracks knocked into shape. Twelve of them will be on the next Electronic album which, Bernard says will be out either just before or just after Christmas. There will be a single in September, possibly called Forbidden City”.

Sumner was quick to scotch stories that he had taken the wonder drug Prozac to overcome a severe case of writer’s block.

"The first I heard about it was when l read about it in the press and it’s simply not true he told The Maker. It appears that a first edition of the ”Late Show” special ”Prozac Diary" was shown to journalists stating that I took Prozac to cure writer’s block. I read about it and was rather alarmed so I asked them to send me a rough cut of the video and couldn’t believe the voiceover they put on top of it.

"Originally, the approached me and told me about this theory of Freud’s that an artist has to be
screwed up to write good music. Oliver James who is a clinical psychologist wanted people to try Prozac to test out this theory.

"The idea of someone giving me a load of drugs and the money to buy them sort of appealed to me. None of my friends tried Prozac so I wanted to be the first. l just liked the sound of it. I was intrigued about what it would do. So I went on that more as an experiment, not cos I had a f***ing writer’s block or any problems. I don't. I’m a very happy guy these days. I couldn’t believe it when I heard the voiceover so I said if you don’t change it, things will happen. So they changed it.

"The conclusion I've come to about Prozac is that it doesn’t really help you write. When you take Prozac, the first few days you get a strong amphetamine-like buzz. After that it wears off. I think it oiled the wheels a bit, as an amphetamine would. 

"I only did one set of lyrics on it. Can we just state that the album is not a Prozac album. All the music was written before I started taking Prozac and I only did one set of lyrics on Prozac. I’ve only stopped taking it a week ago. The idea is that you get used to being in a good mood. And you take it for so long that you forget what it's like being a grumpy bastard. 

"I wouldn’t recommend it to other artists. There are much more interesting drugs you can take to stimulate you. And you don’t feel like you’re on a drug. That’s the weird thing. It’s a very clean tool that goes in and fixes a bit of your personality. Its more like a herbal remedy that works.” 

Work began with former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos on Electronic’s second album 15 months ago in Manchester. It was interrupted by the birth of two children to Sumner and his girlfriend Sarah. Tracks written by Bernard and Johnny Marr are: "Forbidden City”, ”For You”, ”Visit Me”, ”Intaferon”, ”As The World Turns”, ”Cold Anger”, ”Breathless”, Positive”, ”Second Nature", "Raise The Pressure”, ”Too Much Trouble” and ”Time Can Tell”.

Sumner told The Maker:

"We think that ’Forbidden City’, which we wrote a long time ago, is gonna be the first single off the album. It’s a kind of a guitar, bass rambling song with atmosphere. We tried consciously not to do the same thing again. The only real practical difference is that we try not to use equipment that we've used before. We've used completely different synthesisers. Johnny is using this weird virtual guitar thing that isn’t really a guitar, it’s a computer model of a guitar. It sounds f***ing really good.”

Asked about his lyrics for the album, Sumner was reticent to talk in depth. 

"I don’t really wanna go into lyrics too much cos I feel that people get this impression that I’m iust a lyricist and that I come along and write the lyrics when the music’s been finished by other people, and that’s not the case. I’ve always been an instrumentalist as well. The one that I did on Prozac is sort of about some people I know. I don’t want to break it up this much, because I like people to form their own interpretations. I don't like to give them the instructions cos it takes the fun out of it.”

When pressed about the song he wrote on Prozac, Bernard said: 

"It feels like I’m peeling layers off myself. I guess it still is quite personaI - I didn’t think it was but reviewing it now, I think it is. Maybe it's about making a new start. I really don’t like pulling things apart. A new start and a new album.

"The one I’m most proud of I did last Friday - it’s called ’Second Nature’. I guess that’s about me
growing up and the neighbourhood where I used to live and that’s all you’re getting! My old haunts aren't there any more, they've all been demolished. I guess it’s about losing our roots and not being able to go back cos they don’t exist any more.

"The music generally on the album is very commercial. It’s probably gonna be one of the best albums I've ever made, I really mean that. We started completely afresh and got a bit over-enthusiastic and wrote down about 47 ideas. And it was kind of a bit too much to focus on, but we couldn’t stop writing ideas cos the momentum was so great.

"The songs were all widely different but they were all just soundbites, to use a cliché. It just became obvious that it was taking too long and that we’d better sit down and sift through all these ideas. 

"I've sung about eight of the songs now and I’ve got another six to do. We’re gonna aim to finish it by the end of June which I think we’ll just be on schedule to do. Then we’re gonna mix it in July and there’ll be a single out in the autumn and an album around Christmas. We haven't got a working title for it yet, that always comes last.”

Sumner said that he and Johnny Marr now know each other better socially since working together as Electronic and that the friendship had made work in the studio easier.

"I think both me and Johnny are both into being modernists now- not looking back at the past. I find it a bit boring really to re-invent a style from the Eighties or Seventies or Sixties. It’s self-defeatist and not good for music. What are people are gonna do when they start repeating the Nineties? I find it a bit appalling and boring.

"The Seventies were f"‘**ing shit, I grew up in them. They were really shit, man. The Eighties were pretty bad too, apart from New Order!”

Sumner told The Maker that he enjoyed seeing his old mate Hooky on BBC 2's ”The Mrs Merton Show’.

"It’s pretty strange seeing him up there. The truth about the New Order thing is that we’ve officially got no plans to record again in the future."

Bernard also revealed that he’d been engrossed in Deborah Curtis' book on Ian Curtis and Joy Division, Touching From A Distance".

"It was weird, it was like someone opening a box with your past in it. I found it very interesting. I couldn't put the book down. I must say that I think it is kind of just one point of view of Ian. It’s kind of as if your looking at an object. You’re only gonna see it from  the perspective where you’re stood. It might look completely different round the back and obviously I think Debbie had a lot of anger inside of her which needed to come out and I think it does. I feel comfortable with it. I’ve long since come to terms with the death of Ian simply because of the fact that you’ve got to, there’s no other option. So it doesn't really upset me any more to read about him. It’s just part of life. I really believe it was inevitable.”